Toshiba shows first HD DVD-RW laptop

IDG News Service - TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. will begin selling later this week the first laptop computer to feature a rewritable HD DVD optical disc drive, the company said today.

The PC will be in Toshiba's Qosmio multimedia laptop line and is firmly aimed at users who want to enjoy high-definition video on their PCs. There are two digital high-definition television (HDTV) tuners so that one station can be recorded while watching another. The laptop comes with 400GB of hard disk drive recording space. The 17-in. widescreen display has a resolution of 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, so it is suitable for watching HDTV in full resolution.

The HD DVD-R/RW drive can be used to transfer recorded TV shows or content from a high-definition video camera to disc for archiving. The drive also supports the new HD Rec format, which allows for recording HD content on conventional DVDs. With the price of blank HD DVD media still relatively high, the ability to use cheap DVD media could be a welcome feature for users. However, the capacity of DVD discs is lower, so only about 24 minutes of video can be stored on a single-layer DVD.

The PC is based on a 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and has a NVidia GeForce 8600 graphics processor. Other features include a Harman-Kardon four-speaker sound system, 2GB of memory and 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.

As to be expected from a multimedia PC with such a large screen, the Qosmio G40 is a heavy laptop. It weighs about 10.6 pounds (4.8 kilograms), so while it can be portable, it will probable attract users who live in small apartments and want an all-in-one PC, TV and video recorder to save space.

The machine will cost around ¥400,000 ($3,500 U.S.), and it will go on sale Friday in Japan only. Toshiba didn't announce overseas launch plans. Previous models of Qosmio PC have been put on sale overseas after being launched in Japan.